In July 2012 supreme leader Kim Jong Un paid a visit to the Pyongyang Hosiery Factory. Upon his arrival he first went to see the newly-built men’s socks workshop. Examining the machines that can turn out products of any pattern, shape or colour according to the command of the computer, he took a pair of socks out of a box of a machine and gave it a pull to and fro to know its quality.
Now he headed for the finishing site. He said that the label designs should be developed continuously in keeping with the taste of the people, the demand of the times and the trend of the world and that they should be replaced with new ones steadily.
Then, meeting the researchers who had successfully developed an automatic packing machine for the factory, he highly appreciated their achievements. Now he went over to the women’s hosiery workshop. Looking at different colours of stockings and socks, he said that deep attention should be paid to the steady improvement of colours of women’s stockings and socks in accord with their tastes and fancy. Then he inquired into how the hosiery production plan had been carried out the year before and asked the officials accompanying him how stockings and socks were defined in the clothing industry.
None of them could give a ready answer.
Looking around the officials, he told them that stockings and socks belong to indispensable consumer goods. Until then officials considered stockings and socks to be general mass consumption goods. However, the national leader, defining the articles as indispensable consumer goods, said that research should be conducted into and progress be made incessantly in the hosiery colours and patterns so that they would keep abreast of the times. That, he emphasized, necessitated making hosiery designs properly by holding prize contents for hosiery designs. It was an instruction that was based on deep consideration of the ever-growing demand of the people for material and cultural well-being.
In order to settle the problem of shortage of labour force that arose with the increase of production capacity of the factory the leader indicated ways and means for the settlement of this issue, saying, “You should modernize production processes, enhance the technical and skill levels of the employees, and take good care of the factory equipment. In this way you must keep full operation at full capacity.”
